Halloween Articulation Inferences Activity

I know it seems early for Halloween, but if any of you are like me it might take some time to get everything printed and ready to go for the holiday, and I'm planning on a back to school sale at some point so you can pick them up for a deal!  As one of my previewers for the unit said - Halloween seems to come really fast after the school year starts!

I, as many of us do, have students working on both articulation and language goals or groups that are mixed with the two goals.  Articulation is self explanatory, but language you can do inference and word retrieval skills.  I am always looking for activities to meet both areas because it means we spend more time in the session working and less time shuffling materials.  My students in mixed groups also enjoy all being able to do the same thing and I also like it because there is always one student who wants to do anyone's work but their own.  This activity is designed to use for either or both need areas.

I have made three separate Halloween Articulation Inferences activities. (Linked to my TPT store)
Set 1 has K, G, L and vocalic L
Set 2 has TH, SH, CH and J sounds
Set 3 has S, Z, R and vocalic L
The Complete Set has all sounds listed above, but is a bundle price for 20% off the price of all three.

Each sound has 32 question cards, most cards have inference questions but there are a few holiday trivia questions.  That means each set has 128 therapy cards plus game cards!  The complete set has 384 therapy cards.

The level of difficulty of the inferences varies within each unit so word banks are included so you can vary the level of difficulty as needed for your students.  Blank word banks are also included so you can mix and match cards for your language students.  Each card is labeled by phoneme so you can quickly resort the cards.  The vowel sounds are labeled as VR and VL.

Two types of cards have therapy questions on them - House cards and green and orange tree cards.  16 of each type of card are in each articulation set.

This unit marks the start of something new I'm doing - including a list of standards addressed with the unit.  The list of standards is an example of what standards might be addressed, but please keep in mind that others may be addressed.  You should use your expertise and clinical judgment about the needs and goals of your students.  My intention is to provide a jumping off point and a quick reference for all the busy therapists out there!  I included Common Core Standards because that is what most people use and the Minnesota State Standards (since I am in MN and I look them up anyway). 

Of course there is a simple game included to enhance student interest.  The play is fairly simple: each student is trying to get the most different cards to make up their town, they can count each kind of house and tree only one time.  The student with the biggest town at the end wins!  Street strips are included for your students to put their houses on.  Special cards are lose a house and take an extra turn.  The extra turn cards can be added to the town.

 Halloween is my favorite holiday and one of the few holidays that seems universal for my multicultural, multilingual student population (who doesn't like free candy, anyway!).  Out of my 55 kids last year, only one didn't celebrate Halloween.  I'm super excited to start using this and to break out my Halloween stickers!

Dr. Seuss DIY Activity

 New game DIY idea!  It has all of my favorite attributes of good speech games: cheap, easy, flexible and has cute pictures.  Really, what else are we looking for?

When I went to Target today, I was distracted by the dollar spot (as usual).  I found the cutest Dr. Seuss border.  Since one of my students with an ASD would probably spend most of the therapy session staring at the bulletin board (or tearing it down in excitement), using it as intended isn't a realistic plan for me.  My next idea was to cut it up and make a game out of it. 

 

Next I laminated all of the pieces and cut them out (again). 

I like fairly small edges on my lamination so I typically send my cards through the laminator again to reseal the edges.  It's also a great trick if after some student loving your edges open back up.  Pop it through and you're good to go.  I do this all the time and my laminator is fine.  Since the laminating sheet is stuck to your card, the plastic won't wrap around the wheel and destroy your laminator.  That's what happens when you put a page in backwards or cut the pouch first.  I killed one laminator that way and am not ever planning on repeating that activity.

I cut of 3 individual borders in the pack for 24 cards.

Finally, you have cards with cute Dr. Seuss pictures on one side and blank on the back.  I am planning on using these by writing on the backs with dry erase markers. 

I have so many ideas about how to use these cards:

1. Points games - write numbers 0-5 on the backs and see who ends up with the most points at the end of the session

2. Gotcha games - student collect as many Dr. Seuss cards as they can but if they get one with a star (sad face ect) on the back they don't get a card that turn and see who can get the most.

3. Articulation Word practice

4. Language activities with plurals and past tense verbs

5. Reusable reinforcer - students collect 5 or so pictures and then get to play a game or pick something from the prize box

6. Behavior visual, students start with three pictures and can earn and lose pictures throughout the session depending on their ability to follow rules

Dry erase markers make the possibilities are endless!  

If you don't want endless possibilities use a sharpie on a few games - you get enough border in one pack for 80 cards and still have only spent a dollar.

Of course the secondary thrill is in having plenty of Dr. Seuss cards left over to give to my one student as motivators/stims. 

How would you use these cards?

This is one of my favorite back to school finds.  Has anyone else found anything they're particularly excited about?

August 2013 SLP Link Up

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Wow has summer flown by!!  I can't believe that it's August already!  As of now I have one more week of ESY services.  5.5 hours of student contact plus progress notes and data entry.  (I may or may not be counting down).  Then I have two beautiful weeks off before I officially go back on the 26th. 

I was very excited to see the August Link-UP on All Y'all Need.  I love reading about other things going on the the lives of my fellow bloggers, especially since I think we all need an occasional reminder that non-speech related things might actually happen.  I also am excited to share mine with you.

So here are my big three things for August!

The dead elliptical, the plastic needs to be removed so we can scrap the metal bits.

Buying: I am buying two big things, a new (to me) elliptical trainer since mine has finally run out of it's nine lives.  To give you some perspective on it's age - I remember it from middle school and adopted it out of my parents house.  Today my dad confirmed that the part we had welded back together last time failed again and Monday there will be shopping!  Now if only I had the money to replace the orange carpet (of doom) that the elliptical trainer resides on.

My other big purchase is a new patio door.  I've had it sealed up since last fall and have missed being able to go out on my deck this spring and summer.  I'm excited since I am going to choose to assume that the new door won't lock me outside as the rotten bits change it's level.  I'm two years post the foreclosure purchase, so I'm hoping that I will finish up these things soon.

Trying: Tunisian Crochet, because I clearly need a new way to play with yarn...  Last weekend I was assisting one of my friends with a pretty ridiculous yarn purchase (and by assisting I clearly mean cheering her on and participating - those who play with yarn will understand.  In a stunning show of support, my mom suggested additional yarn storage today).  Anyway, while shopping we both impulsively bought Tunisian crochet hooks (double ended or long).  I am enjoying the mix of knitting and crochet that it provides and frequently doing and undoing rows in my confusion.  It's nice to have a new challenge.  Below is a picture of my first Tunisian project.

Not perfect, but definitely interesting.

And finally, Speeching! As I said above, I will have two weeks off in August, but at least one day will be spent organizing in the speech room.  I have been slowly carrying in my summer thrift store purchases and just today finished cutting out everything I currently have laminated. I need to figure out where to put all of my new stuff and sort through the things currently occupying my shelves.  I also have several TPT units in the works that I want to finish.  I have a massive articulation/inferencing unit designed to hit mixed needs groups/students that I've been working on and hope to finish soon.  I will also likely continue thrift store shopping (I have been on a ROLL lately with great finds) and checking back to school ads for good deals on back to school items.  I do have two weeks off and intend to have at least a few work-free days!

My big tip on back to school sales!  Office Max allows you to get 20 of the great sale items with teacher id and Office Depot allows 2/3 times the limit (it seems to depend on who's checking you out..)  You do have to join the free teacher clubs, but in my opinion it's been worth it.   Also double check before you pay since every item above the normal limit has to be manually changed, I have stood there for 10 minutes while the poor employee figured out how to refund and re-ring me for items at the correct prices.

The pile of things that have yet to make it too work.  The drawers were at goodwill and came with a bonus surprise of a couple yarn darning needles way up on the inside that I found when I was cleaning it off!

Do any of you have anything big happening this month?

Favorite Games Linky Party!

Jenna from Speech Room News is having a Linky Party for favorite speech therapy games.  I've probably mentioned my top few on my blog before, but now might be the time to get them in one place.

My number one game is:  Race to the Roof

As much as I love my therapy card collection, and covet many additions, I also enjoy doing games that require no additional props. In this game students move through the house and there are entertaining pictures throughout.  The rooms in the house are not attached to the board so the house changes and it can be a different game every time.  If students roll a 1 on the dice they get to pick a special card and have to find the object in the house.

I work on so many therapy targets with this one:
Articulation: There are a huge number of S and R things in the pictures in the house, meaning that I can have sentence level articulation students describe the room they land on or for word level they can find a word in their room to practice.

Fluency & Voice: My fluency and voice kiddos can label objects and describe pictures using good fluency and voice strategies.

Language:  The best part ever!  I love this game for my 1st and 2nd grade language students.  We talk about what's going on in the house.  I get so much language, and even my most uncooperative friends work with me since, from their perspective, all we're doing is playing a game today.  I love sneaking the therapy part in, and that's one of those things that tends to get harder with older students and more complex goals.

*I pictured the new and current version of the game because of how much I want it.  Currently, I have the older version, which I liberated from my parents pile of games that my sister and I had as kids.  I you are going to invest in this one, get the new one.  As we all know, updated pictures are everything.  Someday I will find this in a thrift store or a garage sale, and there *might* be dancing.

Game number two: Feed the Kitty

I know I mentioned this game in my Games, Games, Games post where I discussed easily portable games so I'll be brief about the good stuff.  Super quick turns with a dice roll to minimize game time and maximize therapy time.  My kiddos love it.  I've used it in K through 6th grades, in fact I used it in ESY services today!

This was the hardest to pick.  I have so many games that I love to do with my students that I could have put any of 5 or 6 games here.  Lower to upper elementary is such a wide range of ages and interests that it's tricky to choose! So I went with one that is a standard in my therapy room and that I've used with a variety of grade levels.

Game number three: Cariboo

I'll admit I am not particularly in love with this one.  I just really don't get it, but it is like magic for my students.  They love it, they ask for it, some would play it every day if I let them.  They loved it so much, I made my own cards.  Check out the link for my previous post for my musings on the game and the cards.  The name of the game links to amazon, where the actually have copies in various condition for under $20 if you're still looking for one.

Final note on games for today:
I'm a little bit of a nerd, and I hate to get doubles of things at thrift stores and garage sales, especially since they are non-refundable, so I do have a complete game list I can take with me.  Check it out in Google Docs here.

Targeted Tier II Vocabulary Words - TPT Unit

Well, for some reason, all of the ideas I've had since the end of the school year have decided to come pouring out of me this weekend, so I put in some good movies and decided not to fight it.  I'm most thrilled about finally figuring out a way to do a vocabulary unit!  I've been back and forth on what I wanted to do since March and finally figured it out.  It's on TPT, like right now!

I'm super excited to have a good resource to use with my students, especially since vocabulary is such a huge area.  Also, it's a critical skill for our kids to have.  I think we all know that despite our best efforts, many of our students may never be able use correct grammatical skills or speak/write in full sentences.  By focusing on vocabulary we can give them comprehension skills to help them understand the world around them. 

Word selection!  The source of endless frustration for every SLP attempting to address vocaublary.  Standards vary from state to state (MN has it's own version of the common core) and curriculum from district to district.  I picked the words I did because they fell on more than one list for vocabulary for the targeted grade level.  As we all know, different schools, programs and teachers choose to target different words at different times.  Use your judgment based on the needs of your students and school. Even though there was some consistently, the words may fall different grades on different list.

18 words are selected for each target grade level.  The different grade levels use different kinds of animals for easy differentiation, but can easily be mixed for student needs as needed. The animal picture used with each word is consistent for every animal to help with switching between grade levels.  This also allows for word/definition Match or Go Fish games.

The animals are as follows:
Grade 2 - Sea Creatures
Grade 3 - Farm Animals
Grade 4 - Forrest Animals*
Grade 5 - Wild Animals*
*Categorized the same way the clip art creator Pink Cat Studio did.

 Each animal is only used with two different vocabulary words to (hopefully) help with sorting and resorting, since I'm sure we all know how easily things get mixed up as we rush from one group to the next.

Four Types of Cards are in this unit:

Side note - but seriously, how cute is that alligator!

Four Types of Cards:
Word Cards (color and black and white)
- Vocabulary cards are in color and black and white (not pictured) so students can personalize and color a set to keep.
Definition Cards
Yes/No + Why Question Cards
 - Yes/No question prompts followed by a why question to help you see how your student is thinking.
Antonym/Synonym Question Cards
- Check for understanding of new vocabulary in context.

A word list is included for each grade level so you can find a specific word at a glance.

Writing pages are included for Word and Sentence levels since writing words can be critical to retention of new words.

If you are as excited about this one as I am, head over to TPT to get it now!

Make sure you like my Facebook page so you can say updated on flash freebies as well as new materials.

Flying for Cause and Effect

Cause and effect is one of those skills that many of my students have a lot of trouble understanding.  Cause and effect is so important for cognitive organization and to help students understand concepts that are happening in their classrooms.  I want to continue working on this, and have a variety of stimulus activities to work on with different students. Thus I needed more materials! We always need more materials.  How does that commercial go again? "We want more, we want more!"

Anyway I broke the cause and effect into two sections.  The first takes out the actual vocabulary "cause and effect" and uses the phrases "what would happen if?" and "what will happen next?"  The idea behind this is to get students to start thinking about how different events are related.  Next there are cards that ask students to identify possible causes and effects.  Both multiple choice and open answer cards are provided.  A cause/effect cue sheet is included!  Check it out on TPT!

Both types of predicting outcomes cards.

"Gotcha" or game cards are provided for the open ended response cards for both levels of difficulty.

Two kinds of cause and effect cards.  Both cause/effect prompts are included in each format.

I also made a flying in the clouds game to go with this activity.  Students roll a dice and go to the next biggest number.  If they land on an airplane space, they follow the dotted line to either go ahead or backward.

If you're interested make sure to check this one out on TPT! 

Also make sure to like my Facebook page.  As of this moment, we're 21 likes until a flash freebie!  Like me and comment below to vote for what it should be!

Collecting Slimy Snails: A Describing Activty (and a summer update)

WOW!  It has been a long time since I have posted anything.  I had most of June off, with some training days for a math class and SIOP (EL certification).  I can't say enough good things about SIOP, especially since it has classroom teachers working on specific language goals with the students in the classroom.   It just happened that I ended up taking time off from blogging and creating as well off work.  I do have a monster pile of laminated materials getting reading to go back to school, and I think that the new laminator can be officially termed "broken in."  I also did a massive rush for finishing some baby gifts for some of my friends (pictured on my facebook).  Now that I'm back in the ESY mode, it's time to go back to blogging and materials!

Of course, the "to cut" pile is not included.

I have a new activity for everyone, because what better way to come back from break than to have a freebie?

I've actually had this one mostly done for some time now, and am finally getting around to finishing touches and, of course, sharing it.

Students need to sort attributes and describing words into pails as they collect snails.  I also included blank Snails and Pails for you and your students to personalize the activity and describe things that your students want to talk about!

This is a freebie on TPT so head over and grab it!